How To Be The Person Who Gets Up At 6am

9th November 2018

There are very few of us, even the most committed runners and fitness enthusiasts who have not been woken up by an early alarm call and simply wished for longer in bed, especially if you hear the rain and wind lashing against the window.

We now live in a fast paced, digital world where we are connected day and night, and this is having huge impacts on our rest and recovery. Even though we like to be connected, and our reliance on smart phones and technology increases by the day, the impact on our ability to rest and more importantly sleep, is being severely affected.

My work tells me that the one thing above all else that people are neglecting, yet crave more of, is a good night’s sleep, and that is still in our control, if we prioritise it. If you want to the person who can get up at 6 am and get there, starting the day in a way that will improve every aspect of your life, then you will have to possibly break a series of long standing patterns that have been hard wired into your brain in recent years. If there is one word that summarises the life of an elite athlete, it is “repetition”. They repeat a series of behaviours and routines on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis which they rarely break. And that is the challenge for us too.

Rising early to train, run, go to the gym, walk to work etc will require a set of habits that, if broken, will only lead you to pressing the snooze button. Everything starts and finishes with rest and sleep and if you want to be the person who will get up at 6 am, start with your evening routine, culminating in going to bed at the same time, where possible. Of course we have commitments, distractions and families, but our energy is a limited resource and must be managed accordingly.

I believe there are a series of golden rules that, if broken, will eat into your limited energy supply. We have been conned into thinking that we need less rest and sleep, when in fact we need more. To help you establish a new set of evening routines to help you rise and exercise early, I would look at the following:

Stick to a sleep schedule and go to bed and get up at the same time every day, including weekends. Lie in’s disrupt sleep routines.

Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol late in the evening

Eat early

Relax before bed and wind down before sleeping

Avoid blue light such as phones, iPad and tablets before sleeping and do not take them into your bedroom

Set yourself a goal for the morning’s activity and use the previous morning’s exercise and get there moment as motivation

Use an alarm clock instead of your phone to help keep your bedroom free of blue light

Adhering to a routine is the key to building patterns of behaviour and breaking bad habits. It is entirely within your control to do this and then getting up at 6 am becomes a pleasure, not a punishment.

Written by Michael Caulfield, a leading sports psychologist at The Sporting Edge. Michael has teamed up with Wiggle to help you Get There.